Poster by Lorna Sheppard (Siviter)
The cookbooks of The Stork Cookery Service were established in the UK in 1939 to educate and info... more The cookbooks of The Stork Cookery Service were established in the UK in 1939 to educate and inform readers on how to prepare food despite rationing restrictions. Given the role of the kitchen as the quintessential site of home making and consumerism, the cookbook offers a unique perspective on how food was purchased and prepared and helped shape the identity of its readers. My doctoral research so far has examined the relationship between text and illustration in cookbooks and how well recipes have been communicated. The Stork cookbooks offer an insight into how a leading manufacturer re-introduced a brand that was absent during the war. The change in social expectations and aspirations dictated the content of their recipes through text and illustration after food rationing ended.
Location: University of Portsmouth
Event Date: Apr 1, 2015
Organization: Social History Society
Conference End Date: Apr 2, 2015
Conference Start Date: Mar 31, 2015
Conference Presentations by Lorna Sheppard (Siviter)
The kitchen traveller: Text and Illustration and the discourse of foreign travel in Elizabeth Dav... more The kitchen traveller: Text and Illustration and the discourse of foreign travel in Elizabeth David's A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950). During the early 1950's, new technologies in printing and colour imagery emerged, transforming the visual language of cookery, yet, despite the availability of photography, many cookery writers chose to use illustration. Elizabeth David's post war cookbooks typically appealed to the middle-class reader, evoking memories of and aspirations to foreign travel and illustration was instrumental in promoting the touristic experience. This paper will focus on Elizabeth David's cookbook A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950) and how the spirit of the Mediterranean was realised and embodied through David's vivid and authentic text, and John Minton's colourful and vivid illustrations. During a period of postwar austerity in Britain, David's book was seen as a welcome return to stability and despite the limitations of the English larder the book was instrumental in introducing the middle classes back to culinary daring, adventure and travel narratives. David would later describe the book 'as a love letter to the Mediterranean' (cited in Cooper 1999: 153) and through David's evocative writing and Minton's accompanying illustrations, a cultural and historical link is made to the original source of her recipes. This paper will argue that in the process of the reader noting the historical and cultural significance of what they are cooking-conveyed by the interplay between illustration and text a touristic experience is explored through the reading of the recipe and in the subsequent preparing, consuming and discussing of the meal at the table and elsewhere in the home.
This paper will focus on Len Deighton's Action Cookbook (1965) and draws on a recent online inter... more This paper will focus on Len Deighton's Action Cookbook (1965) and draws on a recent online interview with the author and illustrator. It will argue that this cookbook was partly instrumental in challenging traditional roles by empowering and educating its readers toward a new attitude and heralded a turning point toward the 'impressive cookbook'. Nicola Humble attributes Elizabeth David's early success to 'food writing that appealed to men-a combination of fine writing, an appreciation for art, culture and wine and travel narratives. (2005: 133). Deighton's cookbook was directed at a male readership and like David's texts, technique and authenticity are key components. The significance of Deighton's work is found in his 'cookstrips'-energetic and enthusiastic illustrations that were developed from recipes that were copied from his own collection of classic French cookbooks 'as an aide memoire just for me to have in the kitchen while I worked, the diagrammatic style of the drawings came from that need'. (Deighton 2015). Deighton relays this concept to a time when 'non-professional cooks were willing to spend time and skill in the desire to make something delicious'. (Deighton 2015). The study of Deighton's 'cookstrips' has been largely unexplored and my paper will also discuss Deighton's unique position as both writer and illustrator. Deighton's bold diagrammatic illustrative approach is also indicative of a new philosophy toward gender roles within the home where women were now seeking roles traditionally performed by men. For Deighton as writer and illustrator, the dialogue between word and image is embedded in his own unique and simple visual language, which he developed to satisfy his own requirements in the kitchen and for those with a similar visual learning style. The cookbook in this context becomes an instructional device for educating – for those traditionally unaccustomed to all things culinary and for those wanting to acquire new skills.
The Cookbook as Material Object: Text and Illustration and the discourse of home making in Elizab... more The Cookbook as Material Object: Text and Illustration and the discourse of home making in Elizabeth David's book French
The Cookbook as Material Object: Text and Illustration and the discourse of home making in Elizab... more The Cookbook as Material Object: Text and Illustration and the discourse of home making in Elizabeth David's book French
Selling Stork: The materiality of Illustration and the discourse of consumerism, product culture ... more Selling Stork: The materiality of Illustration and the discourse of consumerism, product culture and communication in the recipe booklets of the Stork Cookery Service of the post-rationing era. The Stork Cookery Service developed a series of imaginatively illustrated 20 page recipe booklets under the Stork Wives Club banner to educate working-class housewives in cooking with basic sugars and fats. The diversity of these titles reflected upon an increasingly consumerist society where recipes were exchanged and subsequently developed by Stork Kitchen Experts. The change in social expectations and aspirations dictated the content of these recipes and text and illustration reflected those changes toward a new sense of modernity. Drawing on a recent visit to Unilever's archives at Port Sunlight this paper will focus on the illustrations used in these booklets – often witty and charming images that captured this new sense of modernity utilising styles and techniques of the period. These illustrations were largely unsigned, leading to illustrator anonymity and difficulty in establishing the relationship between illustrator and manufacturer. The role of the illustrator becomes secondary, and thus, the cataloguing and interpreting of such material becomes more complex. As a visual resource the recipes containing Stork margarine and the readers of these booklets can only determine the position of and the influence of such illustration. This paper will therefore consider illustration as a visual reference and how it educated and informed its readers in cooking with sugars and fats. This paper will also examine the materiality of illustration and its role in reflecting upon new and emerging dietary habits in post-rationing Britain and further consider the interaction between reader and recipe booklet, and how those readers interpreted illustration.
A Mediterranean Odyssey: Text and Illustration and the discourse of foreign travel in Elizabeth D... more A Mediterranean Odyssey: Text and Illustration and the discourse of foreign travel in Elizabeth David's A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950). During the early 1950's, new technologies in printing and colour imagery emerged, transforming the visual language of cookery, yet, despite the availability of photography, many cookery writers chose to use illustration. Elizabeth David's post war cookbooks typically appealed to the middle-class reader, evoking memories of and aspirations to foreign travel and illustration was instrumental in promoting the touristic experience. This paper will focus on Elizabeth David's cookbook A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950) and how the spirit of the Mediterranean was realised and embodied through David's vivid and authentic text, and John Minton's colourful and intense illustrations. During a period of postwar austerity in Britain, David's book was seen as a welcome return to stability and despite the limitations of the English larder the book was instrumental in introducing the public to culinary daring, adventure and travel narratives. David would later describe the book 'as a love letter to the Mediterranean' (cited in Cooper 1999: 153) and through David's evocative writing and Minton's accompanying illustrations, a cultural and historical link is made to the original source of her recipes. This paper will argue that in the process of the reader noting the historical and cultural significance of what they are cooking-conveyed by the interplay between illustration and text a touristic experience is negotiated and explored through the reading of the recipe and in the subsequent preparing, consuming and discussing of the meal at the table and elsewhere in the home.
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Poster by Lorna Sheppard (Siviter)
Location: University of Portsmouth
Event Date: Apr 1, 2015
Organization: Social History Society
Conference End Date: Apr 2, 2015
Conference Start Date: Mar 31, 2015
Conference Presentations by Lorna Sheppard (Siviter)
Location: University of Portsmouth
Event Date: Apr 1, 2015
Organization: Social History Society
Conference End Date: Apr 2, 2015
Conference Start Date: Mar 31, 2015